LAS VEGAS — Sometimes you’d rather be lucky than good; and Corey Day certainly utilized a little bit of both to win Saturday’s season opener with Kubota High Limit Racing at Las Vegas Motor Speedway.
The victory earned a $25,000 payday for the Jason Meyers Racing No. 14bc pilot.
Rolling from outside the front row for the 30-lapper, Day was the hunter for the majority of the race as he trailed polesitter Daryn Pittman. The 2013 World of Outlaws champion, Pittman was the man to beat aboard the Kreitz Racing No. 69k, easily controlling the opening 23 laps before the shape of the race changed drastically.
Pittman appeared to have his first Kubota High Limit Racing win in the bag, especially notable coming with the Pennsylvania-based team all the way in Nevada, until the No. 69k ran out of fuel in heartbreaking fashion and handed the lead to Day.
On the final restart with five laps left, Day welcomed the attacks from his Hendrick Motorsports teammate Kyle Larson, and fought every one of them off.
He crossed the stripe with a 0.632-second margin of victory.
At 19 years old, the Clovis, Calif., native now ranks third on the all-time wins list with Kubota High Limit Racing. Day’s eight victories only trails fellow Californians Rico Abreu (12 wins) and Brad Sweet (10 wins).
Larson’s bid for back-to-back season-opening wins with Kubota High Limit Racing fell just short with a second-place finish in the Silva Motorsports No. 57.
Defending Kubota High Limit Racing champion Brad Sweet began his title defense with an 11th-to-third run aboard the Kasey Kahne Racing, NAPA Auto Parts No. 49.
A pair of former USAC champions closed out the top five with Tyler Courtney finishing fourth in the Clauson-Marshall Racing No. 7bc and Brady Bacon running fifth in Jimmie May’s No. 73.
The finish:
Feature (30 Laps): 1. 14BC-Corey Day[2]; 2. 57-Kyle Larson[4]; 3. 49-Brad Sweet[11]; 4. 7BC-Tyler Courtney[5]; 5. 73-Brady Bacon[10]; 6. 88W-Austin McCarl[3]; 7. 26-Justin Peck[22]; 8. 19-Brent Marks[8]; 9. 41-Dominic Scelzi[19]; 10. 24-Rico Abreu[6]; 11. 21T-Tanner Holmes[13]; 12. 88-Tanner Thorson[24]; 13. 3-Kaleb Montgomery[14]; 14. 10-Ryan Timms[12]; 15. 24D-Danny Sams III[18]; 16. 9R-Chase Randall[26]; 17. 13-Daison Pursley[16]; 18. 14-Spencer Bayston[9]; 19. 9-Kasey Kahne[20]; 20. 34-Sterling Cling[15]; 21. 42-Sye Lynch[25]; 22. (DNF) 69K-Daryn Pittman[1]; 23. (DNF) 21-Brian Brown[7]; 24. (DNF) 92-Andy Forsberg[23]; 25. (DNF) 5-Brenham Crouch[21]; 26. (DNF) 87-Justin Sanders[27]; 27. (DNF) 84-Ty Gibbs[17]
